I've been using the freeware version of the jv16 Power Tools (1.4.x) for quite some time and it works great. It allows me to search the registry, do complete find/replace operations simply, scan down orphaned registry nodes or files, registry backups, etc. It doesn't do anything without asking and expects me to know how the registry works; it doesn't treat me like a simple user.

I was wondering if anyone else used a similar (preferably open-source) program they'd like to recommend. Or, if you have experience with the newer versions of jv16 and would like to convince me, that works too.

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I use Hijackthis to scan the registry for settings installed by unwanted applications.

Also, sometimes it's best to get your hands dirty and touch regedit directly (Make sure you backup (export) before making changes though. Use Windiff (from Microsoft's Support tools) for looking up differences in the registry - between two .reg files).